Petroleum prices were up 2.1 percent last month after gaining 4.3 percent in July. The petroleum index, which increased in seven of the past eight months, has advanced 51.8 percent since December 2001. The price index for nonpetroleum imports also rose in August, edging up 0.1 percent after no change in July.

Led by the continued rise in agricultural export prices, the index for overall exports edged up 0.1 percent in August, after gaining 0.3 percent in the previous month.

These data are a product of the BLS International Price program. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes - August 2002" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 02-516.